social justice movement terminology for interpreters and translators - because more bilingual movements are stronger movements!

Thursday, September 27, 2007

concertación

concertacion: concertation; consensus building

Yesterday Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, was on Democracy Now (see it here - and sign up for the fab podcasts or email headlines - in Spanish even). Anyways, Thom Khun was interpreting (though sadly he was not acknowledged, and he struggled to do it consec - it really should have been simultaneous). At one point Thom rendered concertación as concertation. I was convinced this was a false cognate that came out in the heat of the moment, but when I looked it up it does indeed have an English-only googlage of 342,000 - the thing is they're almost all European sites. And, in fact, the Random House definition (via dictionary.com) says:(esp. in European politics) cooperation, as among opposing factions, aimed at effecting a unified proposal or concerted action.I really doubt that most English speakers in the US will know this meaning. I would vote for consensus building. Other suggestions?(Jon's right - it can also mean coalition, though I think that's not quite how Evo was using it)

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decolonizing solidarity

My other bloglooks at colonial patterns in international solidarity and ways that we might change them, and talks about my research on international accompaniment and how it uses difference and privilege to make space for peace. The latest entries are listed below.